Timeline Explorer · Harun al-Rashid · Stop 1 of 14
640 CE · 20 AH approximate debated before the Hijra
In al-Baladhuri: under Umar the people of Najran took usury and multiplied, so he feared them for Islam and exiled them to al-Najraniyya by Kufa — the settlement named after them — buying up their estates and writing for them that wherever they settled in Syria or Iraq they were…
Umar's Expulsion of the Christians of Najran — 640 CE · 20 AH
In al-Baladhuri: under Umar the people of Najran took usury and multiplied, so he feared them for Islam and exiled them to al-Najraniyya by Kufa — the settlement named after them — buying up their estates and writing for them that wherever they settled in Syria or Iraq they were to be granted arable land in place of their land in Yemen; the Jews of Najran had entered the treaty with the Christians as their followers; in Salim ibn Abi al-Ja'd's report the people of Najran reached forty thousand, quarrelled among themselves, asked Umar 'exile us' — which he did, already fearing them for the Muslims — then regretted it and sought reversal which he refused, and when Ali ibn Abi Talib took office they came to him and he said 'Umar was of sound judgement and I dislike opposing him'; the rulings then ran on: Uthman remitted two hundred hullas by letter to his Kufa governor al-Walid ibn Uqba after Uthman ibn Hunayf told him their exile had harmed the dihqans by driving them off their land; Mu'awiya or Yazid completed them to four hundred hullas; al-Hajjaj restored eighteen hundred after Ibn al-Ash'ath's revolt, accusing them of backing it; Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz set them at two hundred hullas worth eight thousand dirhams on finding them at a tithe of their former number — 'I see this treaty is a jizya on their heads, not a treaty on their lands, and the jizya of the dead and the Muslim lapses'; Yusuf ibn Umar restored them under al-Walid ibn Yazid out of solidarity with al-Hajjaj; Abu al-Abbas al-Saffah confirmed two hundred hullas after they scattered basil on his procession at Kufa and Abdullah ibn al-Rabi' al-Harithi interceded for their kinship claim through Banu al-Harith ibn Ka'b his maternal uncles, seconded by al-Hajjaj ibn Arta; and Harun al-Rashid confirmed it by a letter the transmitters saw, ordering them freed from dealing with the tax agents to pay directly to the treasury at the capital.
The Building of al-Rafiqa — c. 772 CE · 155 AH
In al-Baladhuri: al-Rafiqa had no ancient trace — the commander of the faithful al-Mansur built it in year 155 on the model of his city at Baghdad and stationed a Khurasani army in it; works continued under al-Mahdi while heir apparent, then al-Rashid built its palaces, and between al-Raqqa and al-Rafiqa lay an open space of sown fields; when Ali ibn Sulayman ibn Ali came as governor of the Jazira he moved al-Raqqa's markets into that space — the city's great old market having been called Suq Hisham al-Atiq — and when al-Rashid later came to al-Raqqa he increased those markets, which have since been assessed with the crown lands; as for Rusafat Hisham, Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik founded it, having previously dwelt at al-Zaytuna, dug the al-Hani and al-Mari canals and laid out Wasit al-Raqqa in it; that estate was seized at the dynasty's opening and passed to Umm Ja'far Zubayda bint Ja'far ibn al-Mansur, who built in it the estate named for her and added to its splendour.
The Building of Madinat al-Hadath — between 778 and 785 CE · c. 162 AH
In al-Baladhuri: al-Hadath was among the conquests of Umar's days, taken by Habib ibn Maslama at Iyad ibn Ghanm's direction, and Mu'awiya kept it up thereafter; Banu Umayya called the Darb al-Hadath 'al-Salama' out of omen, for the Muslims had been smitten there — that calamity being 'the event' as some say — while others say a Byzantine youth (ghulam hadath) fought them on the pass so it was named Darb al-Hadath; in Marwan ibn Muhammad's civil war the Romans demolished Madinat al-Hadath and evacuated its people as they had Malatya; then in year 161 Michael came out to Amq Mar'ash, and al-Mahdi sent al-Hasan ibn Qahtaba ranging Byzantine lands — in this expedition were Mandal al-Anzi the Kufan and Mu'tayyir ibn Sulayman al-Basri — who chose his city-site there, and on return spoke to al-Mahdi of building it and Tarsus; al-Mahdi ordered al-Hadath built first, and Ali ibn Sulayman ibn Ali founded it while over the Jazira and Qinnasrin — it was named al-Muhammadiyya — and al-Mahdi died just as they finished, so it is called al-Mahdiyya and al-Hamadiyya; it was built of mud brick, his death falling in year 169, when his son Musa al-Hadi succeeded, removed Ali ibn Sulayman and gave the Jazira and Qinnasrin to Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Ali; Ali had finished the city, and Muhammad levied for it a contingent of Syrians, Jazirans and Khurasanis at forty dinars' pay, granted them house-lots and gave each man three hundred dirhams — completed in year 169; Abu al-Khattab says Ali ibn Sulayman levied four thousand for the city, settled them in it and transferred two thousand men from Malatya, Shimshat, Sumaysat, Kaysum, Duluk and Ra'ban; when built, winter struck with snows and heavy rain — its building not sound — and the city collapsed in ruin, the Romans occupied it and its garrison scattered; word reached Musa, who dispatched columns with al-Musayyab ibn Zuhayr, Rawh ibn Hatim and Hamza ibn Malik, but died before they could march; al-Rashid then ordered it rebuilt, fortified, garrisoned and its fighters granted houses and estates — another than al-Waqidi says a patrikios grandee camped on the city with a dense host just as it was built, the stacked mud brick ruined by snow, its governor and people fleeing while the enemy burned its mosque, wrecked it and carried off the people's goods — al-Rashid rebuilt it at his accession.
The Aman of Samalu and its People's Transfer to Baghdad — c. 780 CE · 163 AH
In al-Baladhuri: al-Mahdi sent his son Harun al-Rashid raiding in year 163 and he besieged the people of Damalu — which common speech calls Samalu — and they asked his aman, ten householders among them the qummis, which he granted on the condition that they not be separated, so they were settled in Baghdad at the Shammasiyya gate and named their quarter Samalu, which it is still known as; others say they came down on al-Mahdi's ruling — he spared them, gathered them at that spot and ordered it named Samalu; al-Rashid had those remaining in the fortress cried and sold, and an Abyssinian who used to curse al-Rashid and the Muslims was taken and crucified on one of its towers.
Harun al-Rashid's Exchange with a Zindiq on Hadith — c. 786 CE · c. 170 AH
Al-Rashid seized a zindiq and ordered his neck struck; 'Why kill me?' he asked — 'to give people rest from you.' 'And what of the thousand hadith I have foisted on the Prophet, not one letter of which he spoke?' 'And what of you, enemy of God, against Abu Ishaq al-Fazari and Abdallah ibn al-Mubarak, who sift them and cast them out letter by letter?' .
The Accession of Harun al-Rashid — c. 14 September 786 CE · 14 Rabi' I 170 AH
Harun al-Rashid acceded by his father's designation on his brother al-Hadi's death — Saturday night, 14 Rabi' I 170; that same night his son Abdallah al-Ma'mun was born. Per al-Suli, in all of time there was never a night in which a caliph died, a caliph rose and a caliph was born but this one .
The Building of Tarsus — c. April 788 CE · Rabi' II 172 AH
In al-Baladhuri from al-Waqidi: al-Hasan ibn Qahtaba al-Ta'i raided Byzantine lands in year 162 with the men of Khurasan, Mosul and Syria, Yemenite reinforcements and the volunteers of Iraq and the Hijaz, setting out by way of Tarsus, and reported to al-Mahdi the great benefit for Islam in building, fortifying and manning it and the check and vexation it would give the enemy — al-Hasan having fought so well on that raid and harried the Byzantine land that they named him the Shaytan; coming out of Byzantine territory he camped at Tarsus's meadow and rode to the ruined city, circling it on every side and reckoning its capacity at a hundred thousand; he described it to al-Mahdi and likewise told him of al-Hadath, rousing him to build it, so al-Mahdi ordered him to build Tarsus beginning with al-Hadath city, which was built, and charged him with Tarsus; in year 171 al-Rashid heard the Byzantines had conspired to go to Tarsus to fortify and man it, so he sent the summer raid of year 171 under Harthama ibn A'yan ordering him to settle, build and fortify it, putting the work in the hands of Faraj ibn Sulaym the eunuch at his command, and Abu Sulaym marched him to Madinat al-Salam whence he mustered the first levy of Khurasanis — three thousand men — who entered Tarsus, then a second levy of two thousand — a thousand of Masisa's people and a thousand of Antioch's, each man on a ten-dinar increase over his pay — who camped with the first levy at al-Mada'in at the Jihad gate at the opening of Muharram year 172 until Tarsus's building, fortification and mosque were complete; Faraj surveyed from river to river four thousand lots, each twenty cubits square, granted the Tarsusis their lots, and the two levies settled it in Rabi' II year 172; Abd al-Malik ibn Salih had appointed Yazid ibn Makhlad al-Fazari over it, whom the Khurasanis expelled in resentment for the Hubayriyya, and Abu al-Fawaris replaced him, confirmed in 170-and-odd.
Al-Rashid lays the nucleus of the House of Wisdom — c. 790 CE · c. 174 AH†
Harun al-Rashid laid the nucleus of the Khizānat al-Ḥikma at Baghdad: Yūḥannā ibn Māsawayh set over the translation of the ancient medical books with skilled scribes, al-Faḍl ibn Nawbakht rendering Persian into Arabic and ʿAllān al-Shuʿūbī copying .
The Division of the Caliphate among al-Rashid's Sons — between 791 and 802 CE · 175 AH
Al-Rashid settled the succession on his son Muhammad — titled al-Amin, aged five, at his mother Zubayda's urging — in 175; on Abdallah — al-Ma'mun, with all Khurasan — after him in 182; and on al-Qasim — al-Mu'tamin, with the Jazira and the marches, still a boy — in 186, and hung a copy of the compact in the Ka'ba. Al-Dhahabi calls this the first weakening to enter the Islamic state from the imamate's side; a sage said he had cast enmity between them to the flock's harm. Some add that al-Mu'tasim was passed over for illiteracy — yet God brought him the rule and made all later caliphs his descendants .
The Mutual Imprecation of Yahya al-Alawi and Abdallah ibn Mus'ab — c. 791 CE · 175 AH
In year 175 Abdallah ibn Mus'ab al-Zubayri slandered Yahya ibn Abdallah the Alid before al-Rashid, claiming Yahya had invited him to revolt; Yahya challenged him to mutual imprecation in the caliph's presence, entwining hands: 'Say — O God, if You know Yahya did not call me to rebel against this Commander of the Faithful, abandon me to my own power and scourge me with Your punishment.' The Zubayrid faltered, spoke it, Yahya spoke likewise — and the Zubayrid died that very day .
Harun's Appointment of Ibrahim ibn al-Aghlab over the Maghreb — between 795 and 800 CE
In al-Baladhuri: Ibrahim ibn al-Aghlab was of Egypt's army notables; he rose with twelve men who took from the treasury only the measure of their rations and fled, reaching a place called al-Zab over ten days' march from Qayrawan, the frontier's agent then being Harun's Harthama ibn A'yan; Ibrahim claimed the leadership over that district's troops, sending gifts to Harthama, courting him and writing that he had not left obedience nor embraced sin — only need and necessity had driven him — so Harthama gave him his district and sufficed him for it; when Harthama left the frontier Ibn al-Akki ruled after him and his conduct soured until the province rose on him, so al-Rashid consulted Harthama on a man to appoint and he counselled reconciling Ibrahim, cultivating him and giving him the frontier; al-Rashid wrote that he had pardoned his offence and seen fit to give him the Maghreb as a benefaction — Ibrahim ruled that frontier, stood over it and held it firm.
The conquest of the fortress of al-Safsaf — c. 797 CE · 181 AH
In year 181 the fortress of al-Safsaf was taken by storm — al-Rashid himself its conqueror; in year 176 the city of Dabasa was conquered under the amir Abd al-Rahman ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Salih al-Abbasi .
The General Ransom and the Conquests of 190 AH — c. 805 CE · 189 AH
In year 189 the Romans ransomed captives until no Muslim remained prisoner in their lands; in 190 Heraclea was conquered and al-Rashid spread his armies through Roman lands — Sharahil ibn Ma'n ibn Za'ida took the Saqaliba fortress, Yazid ibn Makhled took Malquniya, and Humayd ibn Ma'yuf sailed to Cyprus, demolishing and burning and carrying off sixteen thousand of its people .
Death of Harun al-Rashid at Tus — c. March 809 CE · 3 Jumada II 193 AH
Al-Rashid died on campaign at Tus in Khurasan and was buried there on 3 Jumada II 193, aged forty-five; his son Salih prayed over him. Some say he had dreamt he would die at Tus — he wept, ordered a grave dug, was borne to it in a camel-litter, looked at it saying 'son of Adam, to this you come', and had men go down and complete a recitation of the Qur'an within while he lay in his litter at its edge. Others say Jibril ibn Bakhtishu' erred in his treatment and caused his death. Per al-Suli he left a hundred million dinars, and furnishings, jewels, silver-work and mounts worth a hundred and twenty-five million more .
